Famous Last Words: Through the Looking Glass

This week I read about Britomart in The Faerie Queene, and I really enjoyed that story. As per usual, the women did not get a lot of the rights and respect that I would like, but I did enjoy that it was about a female knight who was breaking the mold and going out to find her love. That style of writing was really enjoyable to me, and flowed really well. I did not realize that The Faerie Queene was so long, and I do not know if I would want to read all of the books published for the entire epic, but I did enjoy the short segment that I read. I finished up the second half of Through the Looking Glass too, and was extremely impressed by the intricate detail of Lewis Carroll's writing. There were so many ways that he fit a chess match into his story without being obvious or obtuse. I would really like to go back and read the entire story. I also did not realize that Alice was only seven years old in both those stories, because she has been portrayed as so much older in recent movies that I have seen. There is kind of a darkness in his writing, or at least a queerness that is not childlike at all, although I think a child could enjoy these stories very much. But it is interesting to read them as an adult because you get the sense of something much different when reading the exact same words. I also think the text has a special prose that a movie simply cannot capture, particularly since Through the Looking Glass focuses so much on poetry. All in all I really enjoyed my readings this week and I am kind of glad I have forced myself into doing some extra credit so I can do these readings.

Life-size statue of Alice Through the Looking-Glassin the grounds of Guildford Castle

(Wikipedia)

Wikipedia Trails: From The Faerie Queene to The Lancasterian System

This week I read about Britomart of The Faerie Queene epic, so I decided to start there:

The Faerie Queene
This is an epic poem written in the 16th century by Edmund Spenser, and is one of the longest epics in the English language. This poem follows knights and inspects various virtues, and was praised by Queen Elizabeth I.

Chastity 
Britomart was the emulation of the virtue chastity, which involves sexual behavior that is considered virtuous by the culture involved. This commonly involves sexual abstinence before marriage and modest clothing, especially in history.

Shakers
One religious movement of the 17th century that took chastity to the extreme were the Shakers, who required celibacy upon admission to the belief system. Children were added to the group by adoption or other measures. This group believed in equal gender roles and women took a leadership role in religious affairs, which is pretty cool.

Lancasterian System
The Shakers practiced a Lancasterian educational system, which involved the older students helping the teacher and providing knowledge to the younger students. A variety of merit-based rewards were used for motivation. This seems fairly in-line with current psychological research on motivation and positive vs. negative rewards.

Count Confalonieri and Silvio Pellico attend a demonstration of the Bell-Lancaster method in the Piedmont, Italy (1860s).

(Wikipedia)

Learning Challenge: Procrastinator Types

I used this infographic  to determine what type of procrastinator I am - and determined I am an avoider, which is described as someone who procrastinates as a way to avoid being judged for their success or failure. I did not find that to be particularly accurate for me, but I also disagreed with the descriptions for the other two options as well. I do not find a thrill for working against a deadline (although I do work better against a deadline - but that's not a thrill, right?), and I am not indecisive. I feel like I procrastinate simply because I find more fun things to do with my time until it is absolutely the last chance I have to do something. However, I also don't think I am a very bad procrastinator, my college classes have kind of beat that out of me. I would have liked a quiz or infographic with more detailed questions and possibly more options for final categories.

(Link)

Week 13 Extra Credit Reading: Through The Looking Glass Part 2

I read the second half of Through the Looking Glass for my extra credit reading this week because I enjoyed the first half so much last week. I found the second half to be more exciting than the first but also much more confusing and a little hard to follow. The first half, while whimsical and non-sensical, did seem to have a plot while the second half seemed to go on meandering and it was easy to get lost. While a resounding theme throughout the story was poetry, the story made it seem like Alice was going to slay the Jabberwocky or that it would seem somewhat important, and then we read it and never heard from it again. The whole use of pawns and knights was quite clever, and I liked how the knight kept falling off the horse- I read on wikipedia that this was supposed to imitate the L-shaped movements that knights make on a chess board. I would like to read the whole book, I think that would make the ending make a little more sense to me. I found it very interesting how Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum talked about Alice being in the Red King's dream, and if she woke him up then she would cease to exist. But they are in her dream. Very existential. The wordplay that existed between the two queens and Alice was so creative, but I found it strange that they were friends rather than being enemies like you would think they would be in a chess game. So once Alice grabbed the Red Queen and started shaking her, she put the Red King in checkmate and "won" the game and was allowed to wake up, according to Wikipedia. It was just amazing how all these details that seem to be so whimsical and random actually came together to tie into the major themes of the story

Story source: Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll (1871).

(illustration by John Tenniel)

Week 13 Story: Britomart's Decision

This was the moment that Britomart had been waiting for. She gazed up at Artegall's face and felt... nothing? Well that was strange. Britomart looked again, to be sure. Yep, everything checked out. Strong jawline, wavy golden locks, hunky blue eyes. It was all there, just like the mirror showed it would be. So why wasn't her heart all aflutter like it was supposed to be? Maybe she wasn't doing this right. Britomart tried squinting her eyes but nothing changed. She just didn't see anything behind those eyes. He seemed like a nice man, but no different from all the other men who were wooed by her good looks. She had known from a young age that she was more than just a pretty face, and it was a rare man who saw that in her. She had been sure Artegall, the man prophesied to be her love, would be one of those men. It was heartbreaking to think that she had to settle for a man who only valued her for her beauty.

But wait, why did she? So some stupid mirror told her she was supposed to be with him. He was a famed knight, there were maidens falling all over him. He would be fine, and she owed it to herself to find a love that was good by her standards, not some wizards. Britomart kindly said goodbye to the love-struck knight, and set out on a new journey. Her best friend, Amoret, had gotten lost in the desert, and wandering around in the desert finding her sounded like the perfect way to readjust her views on love. While also nursing her sore heart, Britomart had to admit to herself. It was a little sad that the dream of her knight didn't pan out the way she thought it would. But Britomart shook her head, put on her helmet, and set off towards the desert.

Author's Note: In the original story, Britomart saw Artegall's image in a magic mirror and Merlin told her that was the love of her life, so she set off on a grand quest to find him. She finally finds him and they get married and live happily ever after. She makes a best friend along the way named Amoret, who does get lost in the desert but Britomart leaves that to other knights to find her. After Britomart gets married she kind of stopped being the bad ass princess warrior to me, and just altogether running after a dude you see in a mirror seems a little stupid to me. So I decided to retell it where when Britomart actually meets Artegall, she realizes he is not what she thought he would be. But that's okay, because she has other things in her life that are important to her and she is going to worry about finding those.

Florimell's Flight by Washington Allston

(Wikipedia)

Story source: Stories from the Faerie Queene by Mary Macleod, with drawings by A. G. Walker (1916).

Week 13 Reading Notes B: Fairie Queen: Britomart unit

I did not like the ending of this story, how we did not find out what happened to Amoret, and how Britomart became this wooing wife who could not stand to see her husband go and was literally making up excuses for him not to leave. Why couldn't they go on the quest together? She had obviously proven her skill with a sword and could take care of herself, she did even better in the tournament than her husband. I just hate that after all this time they could not give her a better ending. And she did not even get to keep her best friend, but rather she got stolen in the desert or something like that.
I am interested in writing a story with a different ending, maybe Britomart sees Artegall and while he is beautiful and everything that the mirror showed her, there was nothing beneath the surface. She had fallen in love with her idea of him, the dream she had made up in her head of him since she was a child. But now that she had been on this adventure and found out that she can take care of herself, she realized that he was not what she needed to fulfill herself. So instead of just running off and marrying him, she goes and finds Amoret, and deals with the loss of this driving quest that has been leading her for her entire life. And then maybe she finds that knight that she met at the castle from the first half of the unit, because they were actually friends and genuinely enjoyed each other's company. But wait he was committed to his wife (maybe she dies, sad) but I just want it to be deeper than "she was so pretty and he fell in love"

Story source: Stories from the Faerie Queene by Mary Macleod, with drawings by A. G. Walker (1916).

Britomart viewing Artegal: an illustration from Book III, Part VII of an 1895-1897 edition

(Link)

Week 13 Reading Notes A: Fairie Queen: Britomart unit

It is kind of sad that there is such an awesome princess who can throw knights from their horses, and yet still her whole mission in life is not to free the oppressed or accomplish amazing tasks like the male knights, but is of course to go find a man she saw in a mirror. I am all for love but why can't she someone along with all these other things? Would she be fine with sitting in her castle if she had not seen this man? Seems like a waste of a heroine. And further more, is this man searching for her as desperately as she is searching for him? Or is he off winning fame and glory doing knightly things? The double standards, as always, are irksome
-I'm definitely at least seeing some more powerful women in this story, but again with the six knights, its because she "has beauty that has no rival". So would knights swear to serve her if she was not pretty?
-Ok so it says further on that even as a child she liked to use weapons and hunt and did not like ladylike things, which is cool and different but again with the lovestruck puppy stuff, it is just so one-dimensional
-Scudamour sounds like a toddler, and would likely be more successful in his knightly efforts if he would stop flinging his armor on the ground and laying face down and throwing tantrums
-I like that Britomart seems to not be interested in material wealth
-So Merlin told her that the brave strong knight would become king and have lots of sons and kings as offspring, but he never said it would be with her. She seems to be putting a lot of faith in a shadow of an image she saw in a mirror

Story source: Stories from the Faerie Queene by Mary Macleod, with drawings by A. G. Walker (1916).

Britomart Redeems Faire Amoret, William Etty, 1833

(Wikipedia)